Zoe McKenzie MP
Shadow Cabinet Secretary
Shadow Assistant Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations
Member for Flinders
TRANSCRIPT
SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT AND ANDREW CHARLTON
Thursday, 5 March 2026
Topics: Mark Carney; Iran conflict
KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me now is our political panel as we return our focus back to Canberra. And Liberal frontbencher Zoe McKenzie is with me, as is Cabinet Secretary Andrew Charlton. Thanks for your time, Zoe.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Yeah, I thought, look, it was an excellent address by a Labor Prime Minister, if I can say. Really important timing. As we know, we’re all thinking about the global rules-based disorder at the moment, and Carney has been an extremely compelling and convincing voice, both at Davos earlier this year and today with us, talking about where there’s commonality of interest, where there’s cultural compatibility, we get along well, we disagree well, all the things you need to, to actually kind of lean in together and lead on a number of those fronts that he identified, whether it was critical minerals, defence, trade, AI, and so, you know, it was an excellent, excellent speech. Echoed many of the themes I heard last week in both Belgium and Germany, because that’s yet another jurisdiction with which we need to be closer. At the moment, we’re negotiating a free trade agreement. Hopefully, eventually, the Labor Party will get around to actually concluding it. And there’s also a strategic defence partnership in place. So those are exactly the kind of jurisdictions with which we must be closer.
KIERAN GILBERT: Yeah, I think it sounds like that FTA hopefully is going to get there very soon with Europe. But with the Carney thesis, I guess it’s… I’m interested in your take in the middle powers working more effectively and closely together. He has a crack at Trump along the way, calls him the hegemon, basically, along with China. But is it easier for him to do that, given they’re always under the US security umbrella where they are? Not so much for Australia.
ANDREW CHARLTON: Yeah, I thought the symbolism today was really strong. You had the Prime Minister of Canada taking a long trip to Australia. You had both houses of parliament in the forum to listen to him give an address. And this is an expression, I think, of the moment that we’re in. And as Anthony Albanese said at the UN last September, in a world of increasing uncertainty, the best thing we can do is build relationships of dialogue and diplomacy with like-minded countries. And the symbolism of Mark Carney coming to Canberra and addressing our parliament, I think, today was a reflection of that. To answer your question, I think we have a lot in common. And I think, obviously, their situation is different on the other side of the world. We have to manage all the relationships in our region as well, which we are doing effectively. But a part of this new world is building relationships with like-minded middle powers, and Canada’s an important example of that.
KIERAN GILBERT: It’s part of the story. I want to get both of your thoughts on the critique from the Greens, not just the Greens, but some other world leaders as well, questioning the legal parameters of this operation against Iran. And I guess for me, you can’t be judging, can you Andrew, that this is in breach of international law without looking at the grey zone tactics of this Iranian tyrannical regime over four decades, the terrorism, the proxies, the brutalisation of their own people. Surely that’s got to be part of the consideration, doesn’t it?
ANDREW CHARLTON: It does, and more broadly than that, you know, this was an action taken by two countries, by the United States and by Israel. It’s really up to them to decide and tell the world what the reason for the action was. But from the perspective of Australia, you know, we don’t have access to all the information that they have. We don’t have access to all the information that led to this decision. So it’s up to the United States to explain the legality of their action. Our response as the Australian government is to say very clearly that we support the action in the sense that we recognise the importance of taking out a tyrannical leader who has brutally murdered thousands of his own people, is a threat to regional security and is developing weapons that could harm the world. That’s our position. The legal basis is something that they’re going to have to explain.
KIERAN GILBERT: What’s your read on that in terms of the international law question?
ZOE MCKENZIE: I think Carney actually spoke to that point directly this morning when he actually said the systems that we together across the table over multiple decades have built is under stress and has not been working for some time. The United Nations has not been working well for some time. The World Trade Organisation stopped working effectively well before the Trump administration. So we have been unable as a collective to modernise and keep those bodies as sharp and as relevant and as impactful as they need to be. What Carney’s asking us all to do is think about a better, more modern and more fit-for-purpose system, and he’s not wrong. And you see that through Iran. The fact that you’ve actually got state-sponsored terrorism here, as well as everywhere else, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, they’re all Iran-sponsored. And our system hasn’t been able to say enough is enough and to disable that capability and that threat. So his point today, and I think it’s one we probably share across the aisle, is that we need to do these things differently. There was more than enough evidence that the world needed to act against Iran. It has. Systems now need to catch up.
KIERAN GILBERT: Yeah, well, indeed. But, I mean.. You look at the tens of thousands of Iranians slaughtered in the last few months. Since 2022, the rights of women have been… They haven’t been in existence for years in Iran, but the persecution, the jailing, the brutality… against their own people. Before you even look at what they do in southern Lebanon, elsewhere right around the world.
ZOE MCKENZIE: I think the only protest I’ve ever been to was at the invitation of my dear friend Keith Wolahan, who brought me to a Women Life Freedom protest in the streets of Melbourne. That was four years ago now. We have known for a long time that Iran needed to be addressed. And now it’s happening.
KIERAN GILBERT: Does it seem ironic a little, double standards even, that you see some people protesting against this action because it’s Trump, because it’s Israel, but forgetting who the target is here?
ANDREW CHARLTON: Well, the target is a tyrannical leader that has been brutal to his own people and been a force for instability in the world. I think most Australians would look at this and support the position of the United States.
KIERAN GILBERT: Have you got many Iranian expats in your seat?
ANDREW CHARLTON: We do, yeah. I don’t have the biggest in my seat, but we have a significant Iranian population
KIERAN GILBERT: What’s the feedback you’ve had?
ANDREW CHARLTON: The overwhelming feedback is support for the Iranian people who want freedom and self-determination in their country and who have been brutalised by a tyrannical regime. And so the Iranian families in my electorate, they are worried about what comes next, how we build peace beyond the bombing. But overwhelmingly, they support this action and think that it gives Iran a good chance to move forward.
KIERAN GILBERT: A glimmer of hope. Let’s hope that does transpire and the vacuum is filled by something constructive. Andrew Charlton, Zoe McKenzie, thank you both. Appreciate it.
ENDS.
